SoroushVahidi/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The folly of forecasting : The effects of a disaggregated sales forecasting system on sales forecast error , sales forecast positive bias , and inventory levels
(2016)

In this study we provide field evidence of the role that sales forecasts play as the coordination mechanism between sales managers and production managers. An extensive body of operations research documents the negative consequences of sales forecast error and investigates how to respond to sales forecast error by optimizing inventory “buffer” stocks. In contrast, we focus on whether a change in the sales forecasting information environment implemented at our research site reduces forecast error and, hence, the need for those buffer stocks. The newly implemented sales forecast “contingency system” disaggregated the sales forecast into two components: (i) an official sales forecast that reflected relatively more certain expected demand, and (ii) a separate report that provided the probability of a contingent demand “event” occurring and the expected volume impact of that event. We predict and find that the system had the intended effect of a reduction in inventory levels, both through better timing of production via a production “postponement” strategy and through a decrease in absolute forecast error. We further consider the incentives of the self-interested sales managers and predict and find that the inventory reduction benefits of the sales forecast system gained through postponement and a decline in absolute forecast error were partially offset by an increase in positive sales forecast bias. Our study provides novel insights regarding the role of forecasting within the organizational context. While the operations literature uses analytic and simulation methods to examine sales and operations planning in a very mechanistic way, we examine the role that changes in the sales forecast information environment play and the opportunistic responses of self-interested managers. (266 words)
Creating people-aware IoT applications by combining design thinking and user-centered design methods
(2015)

This article presents a methodology based on design thinking and user experience design methods for creating what we call `people-aware' IoT applications, where user needs, not technological opportunities, drive the development. This methodology is divided into 7 steps: discovery, capturing, research, design, prototype, evaluate and refine. The tools used include conventional user experience procedures such as problem identification, group brainstorming, surveys, or interviews, mixed with more IoT-specific design specificities. The results of the methodology include well-described and user-oriented scenarios meeting user's needs and also a complete toolbox to assist the implementation and the testing of abovementioned scenarios in an IoT perspective. The article describes the methodology in detail with the help of a use case conducted in a business environment available for the project that leads to the identification and partial design of concrete people-aware IoT applications in the context of a smart meeting room.
A Survey of Surface-Based Illustrative Rendering for Visualization
(2018)

In this paper, we survey illustrative rendering techniques for 3D surface models. We first discuss the field of illustrative visualization in general and provide a new definition for this sub-area of visualization. For the remainder of the survey, we then focus on surface-based models. We start by briefly summarizing the differential geometry fundamental to many approaches and discuss additional general requirements for the underlying models and the methods’ implementations. We then provide an overview of low-level illustrative rendering techniques including sparse lines, stippling and hatching, and illustrative shading, connecting each of them to practical examples of visualization applications. We also mention evaluation approaches and list various application fields, before we close with a discussion of the state of the art and future work.
An Evaluation of Popular Copy-Move Forgery Detection Approaches
(2012)

A copy-move forgery is created by copying and pasting content within the same image, and potentially postprocessing it. In recent years, the detection of copy-move forgeries has become one of the most actively researched topics in blind image forensics. A considerable number of different algorithms have been proposed focusing on different types of postprocessed copies. In this paper, we aim to answer which copy-move forgery detection algorithms and processing steps (e.g., matching, filtering, outlier detection, affine transformation estimation) perform best in various postprocessing scenarios. The focus of our analysis is to evaluate the performance of previously proposed feature sets. We achieve this by casting existing algorithms in a common pipeline. In this paper, we examined the 15 most prominent feature sets. We analyzed the detection performance on a per-image basis and on a per-pixel basis. We created a challenging real-world copy-move dataset, and a software framework for systematic image manipulation. Experiments show, that the keypoint-based features Sift and Surf, as well as the block-based DCT, DWT, KPCA, PCA, and Zernike features perform very well. These feature sets exhibit the best robustness against various noise sources and downsampling, while reliably identifying the copied regions.
Authentication Algorithm for Intrusion Detection in Wireless Networks
(2012)

Security has been a major issue in wireless networks. In a wireless network, wireless devices are prone to be unauthorized accessing data or resources. Hence it becomes necessary to consider issues of security such as : 1. Authentication, 2. Access Control. Traditional methods of Authentication has been to assign user names and passwords. This is extremely vulnerable to be accessed and misused. Therefore, to overcome these problems, This paper proposes a method by which the Username and Password are stored in an Hashed format, with the help of Neural Network learning the hashes instead of storing them in the tables. Thus, reducing the risk of being accessed. Therefore, a combination of authentication and access control could make a good tool for intrusion detection.
Design equations for the Quasi Yagi-Uda antenna operating in the UHF band
(2016)

Design equations for the standard Quasi Yagi-Uda antenna built on 60 mil FR4 are presented to be used on fixed wireless telecommunication systems, Wi-Fi, WiMAX and LTE. In this work, the design equations are systematically proposed for the band between 1 GHz and 3 GHz, where relative bandwidth is better than 39%, the cross-polarization is lower than - 15dB for every angle and frequency, the cross-polarization is lower than -25dB in the main lobe and a front to back ratio better than 12dB in all the bandwidth. Three antennas where designed, built and measured with the proposed equations at 1.5GHz, 2GHz and 3 GHz, showing good agreement with the simulation results.
The burden of allergic contact dermatitis caused by acrylates.
(2016)

Acrylates and methacrylates are esters of acrylic acid and methacrylic acid, respectively, that polymerize either spontaneously or on ultraviolet (UV) light exposure to form products that are commonly used in adhesives in healthcare settings, and in plastics and textiles (1). They were commonly considered to be occupational contact allergens, particularly in dentists and orthopaedic surgeons, owing to the use of (meth)acrylates in dental materials and bone cement (2). However, more recently, the demand for long-lasting cosmetic nails has led to the widespread use of gel nails and acrylic nails. Gel nails are methacrylate-based gel varnishes that rely on UV curing to form a hard nail-coating colour that lasts for up to 2 weeks. This has led to an occupational shift in (metha)crylate allergy, with a rise in incidence among beauticians and nail technicians using these products (1, 3–5). In addition, with home use UV-curing kits now readily available, there is a further shift of contact allergy to consumers. Our aim was to characterize the cases of allergic contact dermatitis caused by meth(acrylates) and cyanoacrylates in our large regional patch testing centre. Because of its significant occupational and health-related sequelae, we highlight the current burden of the serious allergy to these compounds.
A cross-platform analysis of bugs and bug-fixing in open source projects: desktop vs. Android vs. iOS
(2015)

As smartphones continue to increase in popularity, understanding how software processes associated with the smartphone platform differ from the traditional desktop platform is critical for improving user experience and facilitating software development and maintenance. In this paper we focus specifically on differences in bugs and bug-fixing processes between desktop and smartphone software. Our study covers 444,129 bug reports in 88 open source projects on desktop, Android, and iOS. The study has two main thrusts: a quantitative analysis to discover similarities and differences between desktop and smartphone bug reports/processes; and a qualitative analysis where we extract topics from bug reports to understand bugs' nature, categories, and differences between platforms. Our findings include: during 2011--2013, iOS bugs were fixed three times faster compared to Android and desktop; top smartphone bug fixers are more involved in reporting bugs than top desktop bug fixers; and most frequent high-severity bugs are due to build issues on desktop, concurrency on Android, and application logic on iOS. Our study, findings, and recommendations are potentially useful to smartphone researchers and practitioners.
Modelling the interaction of electromagnetic fields (10 MHz-10 GHz) with the human body: methods and applications.
(2008)

Numerical modelling of the interaction between electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and the dielectrically inhomogeneous human body provides a unique way of assessing the resulting spatial distributions of internal electric fields, currents and rate of energy deposition. Knowledge of these parameters is of importance in understanding such interactions and is a prerequisite when assessing EMF exposure or when assessing or optimizing therapeutic or diagnostic medical applications that employ EMFs. In this review, computational methods that provide this information through full time-dependent solutions of Maxwell's equations are summarized briefly. This is followed by an overview of safety- and medical-related applications where modelling has contributed significantly to development and understanding of the techniques involved. In particular, applications in the areas of mobile communications, magnetic resonance imaging, hyperthermal therapy and microwave radiometry are highlighted. Finally, examples of modelling the potentially new medical applications of recent technologies such as ultra-wideband microwaves are discussed.
AAAI: An Argument Against Artificial Intelligence
(2017)

The ethical concerns regarding the successful development of an Artificial Intelligence have received a lot of attention lately. The idea is that even if we have good reason to believe that it is very unlikely, the mere possibility of an AI causing extreme human suffering is important enough to warrant serious consideration. Others look at this problem from the opposite perspective, namely that of the AI itself. Here the idea is that even if we have good reason to believe that it is very unlikely, the mere possibility of humanity causing extreme suffering to an AI is important enough to warrant serious consideration. This paper starts from the observation that both concerns rely on problematic philosophical assumptions. Rather than tackling these assumptions directly, it proceeds to present an argument that if one takes these assumptions seriously, then one has a moral obligation to advocate for a ban on the development of a conscious AI.
Reward Systems in the Brain and Nutrition.
(2016)

The taste cortex in the anterior insula provides separate and combined representations of the taste, temperature, and texture of food in the mouth independently of hunger and thus of reward value and pleasantness. One synapse on, in the orbitofrontal cortex, these sensory inputs are combined by associative learning with olfactory and visual inputs for some neurons, and these neurons encode food reward value in that they respond to food only when hunger is present and in that activations correlate linearly with subjective pleasantness. Cognitive factors, including word-level descriptions and selective attention to affective value, modulate the representation of the reward value of taste, olfactory, and flavor stimuli in the orbitofrontal cortex and a region to which it projects, the anterior cingulate cortex. These food reward representations are important in the control of appetite and food intake. Individual differences in reward representations may contribute to obesity, and there are age-related differences in these reward representations. Implications of how reward systems in the brain operate for understanding, preventing, and treating obesity are described.
Healthcare via cell phones: a systematic review.
(2009)

Regular care and informational support are helpful in improving disease-related health outcomes. Communication technologies can help in providing such care and support. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the empirical evidence related to the role of cell phones and text messaging interventions in improving health outcomes and processes of care. Scientific literature was searched to identify controlled studies evaluating cell phone voice and text message interventions to provide care and disease management support. Searches identified 25 studies that evaluated cell phone voice and text messaging interventions, with 20 randomized controlled trials and 5 controlled studies. Nineteen studies assessed outcomes of care and six assessed processes of care. Selected studies included 38,060 participants with 10,374 adults and 27,686 children. They covered 12 clinical areas and took place in 13 countries. Frequency of message delivery ranged from 5 times per day for diabetes and smoking cessation support to once a week for advice on how to overcome barriers and maintain regular physical activity. Significant improvements were noted in compliance with medicine taking, asthma symptoms, HbA1C, stress levels, smoking quit rates, and self-efficacy. Process improvements were reported in lower failed appointments, quicker diagnosis and treatment, and improved teaching and training. Cost per text message was provided by two studies. The findings that enhancing standard care with reminders, disease monitoring and management, and education through cell phone voice and short message service can help improve health outcomes and care processes have implications for both patients and providers.
"GrabCut": interactive foreground extraction using iterated graph cuts
(2004)

The problem of efficient, interactive foreground/background segmentation in still images is of great practical importance in image editing. Classical image segmentation tools use either texture (colour) information, e.g. Magic Wand, or edge (contrast) information, e.g. Intelligent Scissors. Recently, an approach based on optimization by graph-cut has been developed which successfully combines both types of information. In this paper we extend the graph-cut approach in three respects. First, we have developed a more powerful, iterative version of the optimisation. Secondly, the power of the iterative algorithm is used to simplify substantially the user interaction needed for a given quality of result. Thirdly, a robust algorithm for "border matting" has been developed to estimate simultaneously the alpha-matte around an object boundary and the colours of foreground pixels. We show that for moderately difficult examples the proposed method outperforms competitive tools.
Aggregate Profile Clustering for Streaming Analytics
(2015)

Many analytic applications require analyzing user interaction data. In particular, such data can be aggregated over a window to build user activity profiles. Clustering such aggregate profiles is useful for grouping together users with similar behaviors, so that common models could be built for them. In this paper, we present an approach for clustering profiles that are incrementally maintained over a stream of updates. Owing to the potentially large number of users and high rate of interactions, maintaining profile clusters can have high processing and memory resource requirements. To tackle this problem, we apply distributed stream processing. However, in the presence of distributed state, it is a major challenge to partition the profiles over nodes such that memory and computation balance is maintained, while keeping the clustering accuracy high. Furthermore, in order to adapt to potentially changing user interaction patterns, the partitioning of profiles to nodes should be continuously revised, yet one should minimize the migration of profiles so as not to disturb the online processing of updates. We develop a re-partitioning technique that achieves all these goals. To achieve this, we keep micro-cluster summaries at each node and periodically collect these summaries at a central node to perform re-partitioning. We use a greedy algorithm with novel affinity heuristics to revise the partitioning and update the routing tables without introducing a lengthy pause. We showcase the effectiveness of our approach using an application that clusters customers of a telecommunications company based on their aggregate calling profiles.
A compact field weakening controller implementation
(2006)

This paper proposes a compact field weakening controller (FWC). The FWC was developed during the development of an electrically driven rear axle for a hybrid electric car. The overall control system of the vehicle, the hybrid controller (HC), delivers a reference torque for the rear drive unit (RDU). Depending on the torque reference, instantaneous vehicle speed and battery voltage the task of the FWC is to produce current references for the current controller. The references are chosen to give an optimal current, optimal in the sense that the torque-per-current ratio is maximized, under the restriction of keeping the stator voltage and current limited. The FWC is based on comprehensive measurements of the machine. An algorithm is used to process the data from the measurements. The output from the algorithm is look-up tables. Implementation of the look-up tables is also discussed in the paper
Enhancing the RGR Routing Protocol for Unmanned Aeronautical Ad-hoc Networks
(2012)

The design of a routing protocol for Unmanned Aeronautical Ad-hoc Networks (UAANETs) is quite challenging, especially due to the high mobility of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the low network density. Among all routing protocols that have been designed for UAANETs, the Reactive-Greedy-Reactive (RGR) protocol has been proposed as a promising routing protocol in high mobility and density-variable scenarios. While prior results have shown that RGR is competitive to AODV or other purely reactive routing protocols, it is not fully exploiting all the unique features of UAANETs and the knowledge maintained by intermediate nodes. This report presents a number of different enhancements, namely scoped flooding, delayed route request, and mobility prediction, in order to improve the performance of RGR in terms of overhead, packet delivery ratio and delay respectively. These modifications were implemented in Opnet, and simulation results show that we can reduce the protocol overhead by about 30%, while at the same time increasing PDR by about 3-5% and reducing packet latency. The results further show that there is still significant scope for further performance improvements.
Sensitivity enhancement of MEMS fluid flow rate and flow direction sensor
(2014)

MEMS based flow rate sensor and flow direction sensor is a crucial to the determination of exact fluid flow path. Conventional rectangular cantilever beam detects based on the surface strain of the beam with respect to the mass flow. Different structured beam will greatly affect the sensitivity. In this paper different geometries of cantilever beam such as rectangular, inverted trapezoidal, triangular are designed and simulated using the finite element software INTELLISUITE 8.7. The simulation results show that the inverted trapezoidal geometries having the more deflection at same stress of the conventional beam and thus increase the sensitivity by approx. 1.45 times.
A study on the software requirements elicitation issues - its causes and effects
(2013)

Software requirements elicitation is an important and essential pre-requisite to the subsequent phases in software development lifecycle. There is an increasing focus on how industry performs elicitation as this has a direct influence on the overall project success. It is important to understand broader elicitation issues and challenges, and address them on a large-scale, especially on geographically distributed software development. There are studies focusing on elicitation, but they are relatively small. There is no substantial research related to providing a comprehensive view of elicitation issues along with its causes and effects. This paper attempts to provide a summary of the systematic literature review (SLR) findings from 81 papers. The findings are based on causes of poor elicitation, elicitation issues and challenges, consequences of poor elicitation, advisable practices and classification of elicitation issues. The authors have leveraged cause-and-effect diagrams to draw conclusions on SLR.
Scalable Semantics-Based Detection of Similar Android Applications
(2013)

The popularity and utility of smartphones rely on their vibrant application markets; however, plagiarism threatens the long-term health of these markets. In this paper, we present a scalable approach to detecting similar Android apps based on semantic information. We implement our approach in a tool called AnDarwin and evaluate it on 265,359 apps collected from 17 markets including Google Play and numerous third-party markets. In contrast with earlier approaches, AnDarwin does not compare apps pairwise, thus greatly increasing its scalability. Additionally, AnDarwin does not rely on information other than the app code — such as the app’s market, signature, or description — thus greatly increasing its reliability. AnDarwin can automatically detect library code and remove it from the similarity analysis. We present two use cases for AnDarwin: finding similar apps by different developers (“clones”) and similar apps from the same developer (“rebranded”). In ten hours, AnDarwin detected at least 4,295 apps which have been the victims of cloning and 36,106 apps that are rebranded. By analyzing the clusters found by AnDarwin, we found 88 new variants of malware and identified 169 malicious apps based on differences in the requested permissions. In contrast to earlier approaches, AnDarwin can detect both full and partial app similarity. Additionally, AnDarwin can automatically detect similar code that is injected into many apps, which may indicate the spread of malware. Our evaluation demonstrates AnDarwin’s ability to accurately detect similar apps on a large scale.